Why Is Gratitude Often Underplayed?

The sense of entitlement is why gratitude is subconsciously underplayed by so many people. We live in a world where people hardly show gratitude simply because they expected more, or they underestimate the efforts and intent of those who has made attempts to be good to them. One thing is, so many people are good at counting scores and figures, they live the kind of lives where they're used to being offered things without even asking for it. This might be because of their status, their looks or the whatever position they find themselves in life.

One of the things people do to downplay the efforts of others is to measure the impact of the these efforts by their own standards rather than being objective and weighing the efforts, the degree or the extent of sacrifices of these other people by what it has actually cost them. So many people fail to understand the meaning of a sacrifice. A sacrifice is what is lost in order to make something happen. A person who failed to attained graduation to be with their sick partner or parent is a sacrifice, now while this might seem not to matter, we might never know what that graduation might mean to the person who missed it.

I came from an extended family that was typical indifferent, both from my maternal and paternal side. The joy of being loved was something I never felt. I grew up with the mindset that life's harsh, and it was difficult for others to give off little of themselves to make you whole. Due to this, it was utterly difficult for me to expect anything from anyone. Deep down, I bore no animosity for anyone, the cruelty in my family made me feel that out there wasn't going to be any better and this made me grew a thick skin.

This didn't mean that I never needed anyone, I did, there are circumstance where we are at the last breathe of survival, and we just need someone to pull us off that quagmire, but in a situation where you believe that no one will come even in your darkness moment and loneliest travails, you're not disappointed in humanity, rather your numb and subconsciously independent, even if you shouldn't be.

Imagine expecting nothing from life, but you get something freely without having to think of paying back. This is the borderline of gratitude. A sense of gratitude can stem from a place of hopelessness. There are time when we begin to wish for the smallest difference, a bit of ripple to rock the boat and automatically change our direction, we seem to make pledges to be better people when get the opportunity to leave ground zero.

Almost everyone has been in that place where they have accepted the verdict of fate, made peace with the pain and anguish of life, only for things to happen differently at the last minute. Gratitude is born unexpectedly, especially when people are conscious to the impact made by others in making things happen differently for them. However, why do some people show gratitude, while some do not? This is because of being conscious and choosing to be indifferent.

Sometimes in life, people who are recipients of good wills becomes too accustomed to being fortunate, making them measure the efforts of people in their lives. Some people have never been in that position where the smallest of gesture will melt their heart and this makes it difficult for them to show gratitude when necessary. Nevertheless, gratitude is an aspect of life that should remind us of our humanity.

To me, The intent of an action is bigger than the action itself. I've had many people over the years who were good to me, even if they'd totally forgotten everything, deep down in my heart I still feel like everything I get to accomplish in life, or every door I couldn't open but did due to their sacrifices and even the times I survived. I feel that I'm indebted to them all the way. Now gratitude doesn't have to have a gratifying intent, sometimes it's meant to plant a subconscious seed within us that goodwill is supposed to be cyclical.

Not everyone who has been good to us, requires us to be good to them, but holding these people at the back of our mind, allowing their gestures remain evergreen within us, is a way to honor their sacrifices even if we cannot measure the extent to which they went. Another thing is, there are times we stop receiving the goodwill of people due to circumstances we cannot place our fingers on, this shouldn't erase the times when these people were there for us.

There are thing that are prevalent in life and that's the fact that people replaces good memories with bad ones rather than bask in the good memories even when unpleasant events are happening. Gratitude goes beyond the physical, sometimes we're in a difficult place and we ourselves we understand that it's only a divine intervention that we've scaled through. Even when we cannot be verbally grateful, let it resonate in our actions, in our mentality, let it showcase in our selfless quest to others even in the most difficult situations.